History Fades to Legend
by hmweasley
Summary: A millennium after Aang and Katara are married, a young girl listens to her grandmother's story of the event. Written for Kataang Week 2018.


**A/N: I'll be honest and admit that I'm not really happy with how this turned out. I wasn't really sure what to do with the mythology prompt, but here we are. I hope you enjoy it anyway.**

 **Also, with the grandmother's story, it's supposed to feel ambiguous and leave you unsure what's real and what's myth. I'm not sure how well I pulled that off.**

 **Word Count: 1,106**

* * *

 **History Fades to Legend**

She was still a young girl when she began learning about the Avatars of history. They fascinated her. Both in and out of her history classes at school, she would daydream about what life must have been like in earlier eras. How must Avatar Korra have felt when she had to make her own way as an Avatar without her past lives to guide her? How had Avatar Wan navigated an entirely new position and responsibility? She had so many questions that no one could quite answer anymore.

The last Avatar had died only days before she'd been born, so she didn't have a contemporary Avatar to look up to like her parents or her grandparents had had as children. They would tell her stories about how the last Avatar, from the Air Nomads, had sometimes visited the South Pole, and she desperately wished for something as exciting as that to happen to her.

For all the beauty the South Pole possessed, she couldn't help but feel that little happened in her home. Her parents took her on frequent trips to the other nations and to the Northern Water Tribe, and she found herself fascinated by what she saw. When they had to return home, she was never quite ready to go.

In her dissatisfaction, she read more about the Avatars of the past.

It wasn't long before she stumbled upon Avatar Aang in her reading. If the Avatars of recent centuries had faded from the commonly recounted history, Aang belonged to a time that had only the faintest of connections to the present.

Avatar Aang had held the power to communicate with every Avatar who had existed before him. He was the last of that unbroken lineage.

She wondered what that must have been like: living your whole life believing you'd hold the power to communicate with all of your subsequent lives only for that to be taken from you in death.

The story held her tightly as she devoured every bit of information she could on Aang. The vast majority of it was legend, not fact, but she couldn't help but hold onto hope that there were at least nuggets of truth within the stories, such as Aang marrying a Southern Water Tribe woman.

She desperately wanted it to be true, if only because it was a sign that she could be meant for more in the world than just sitting around the South Pole and helping hunt for food. Suddenly, it wasn't just an Avatar she was interested in but in the figure of Katara. Someone who the world had kept even fewer records of over the millennium since her death.

* * *

"Really, Grandma? Please tell me you're not lying!"

Her grandmother chuckled and leaned over to pat her on the head like she often did when she thought she'd done something endearing. She frowned at the gesture. No matter how many times she insisted she was too old for it, her grandmother ignored her.

"It's very much true, child. The story has been handed down in our family for centuries."

"I can't believe it," she breathed, taking in her newfound knowledge. "I'm related to an Avatar."

There was another laugh from her grandmother.

"In a way," the woman allowed. "It was our ancestor's sister who was married to the Avatar. Nonetheless, there was an important bond between Sokka and Aang. It's something to be proud of."

She still wasn't sure if her grandmother was lying or not. The elderly woman had a habit of telling stories that were too wild to be true. Once upon a time, she'd believed all of them, but chiding from her parents had instilled her with skepticism.

However, the idea of a familial connection to her favorite legendary figure was too wonderful for her to dismiss.

"Can you tell me more about them? What are the stories?"

Her grandmother smiled and settled into her chair.

* * *

Many centuries ago, the Southern Water Tribe was smaller than it is today, but its horizons were broadening. The world's people were still adjusting to the end of the 100 Years' War and the newfound world trade and migration that was a result of the newly attained peace.

In the midst of it all, Avatar Aang and Katara were married right here in the South Pole.

In their younger years, Katara and Sokka each spent a lot of time in Republic City, but the South Pole was always their home. Both of them would return to live here later in life, but even then, they visited frequently.

Their wedding was beautiful. You've seen Southern Water Tribe weddings, but theirs wasn't exactly like that. They blended our culture with that of the Air Nomads beautifully. I'm sure the world has never seen a wedding quite like it since considering how much of Air Nomad culture has sadly been lost.

Needless to say, the ceremony captured the attention of many people around the world, and the South Pole had more visitors than it had received for a long time as the people of other nations wanted to witness what they could of Avatar Aang's wedding.

The entire tribe took pains to make it the greatest celebration the South Pole had ever seen.

That wasn't hard when so many viewed the wedding as historic.

It may be hard for you to believe, but marriage amongst the nations wasn't so common back then. Many rightfully saw Aang and Katara's wedding as ushering in a new era of unity between the nations by showing that such marriages were possible.

They changed a lot that day.

The world began to change. So many of your friends are originally from the other nations. You yourself have Earth Kingdom heritage. Today, none of that is strange, but it started with them.

* * *

She stared at her grandmother with wide eyes. There was a pang in her chest at the thought that the story was over. All thoughts about the story possibly being untrue had fled her mind as she'd listened.

"Were they really the first?" she asked.

"The history of the world is a long one. No one can say they were the first. There was a time when the nations didn't even exist. What's far more important was that they were the first to marry so publicly after the long years of war."

She nodded, still staring at her grandmother in the hopes that the elderly woman would provide her with more, but her grandmother seemed finished as she settled back in her chair and closed her eyes.

Sighing in disappointment, she hurried out of the room to let her grandmother nap.


End file.
